Five9 held its annual analyst summit in a new location this year: Seattle, WA. While some of us initially assumed the location was chosen because Seattle is such a cool city (which it is), the real reason was more practical: Five9’s new CEO, CMO, and CTO all reside there. Yes, there’s a new leadership team at Five9, along with new energy, positioning, branding, and more. While some things - and people - remain the same, there are definitely changes afoot. As CEO Amit Matradhas explained, the new leadership team and organizational changes are designed to remove internal friction and enable Five9 to build, think, and react faster. One of my favorite quotes from the event was: “We’re building for scale, for the next evolution. We’re using our past as an anchor but not letting it be an anchor.” AI and the Evolution of CX The growing role of AI in customer experience cannot be understated. Five9’s new tagline is “Smarter CX with every interaction,” highlighting how customer interactions feed into AI’s knowledge base in a continual learning loop for both human and AI agents. According to Jay Lee, CMGO (Chief Marketing and Growth Officer), smarter CX with every interaction means faster resolutions, better outcomes, stronger relationships, and deeper insights. As Matradhas explained, Five9 sees this as a whole new system where AI and humans come together to create new outcomes. As he put it, “Based on customer feedback, we’re on a direction to capitalize on this new wave.” When GenAI first came on the scene, many people - particularly on Wall Street - assumed that the role of contact centers and contact center agents would decrease, with AI taking over customer service interactions. That hasn’t happened. Matradhas noted, “AI was supposed to shrink contact centers, but it’s still growing, with new jobs and agents added.” The implication is important: AI isn’t replacing the value of the contact center; it’s expanding it, with Five9 putting the market expansion opportunity at $50 billion by 2029. Matradhas attributed this in part to a simple dynamic: when service gets easier and better, people engage more, not less. In today’s contact centers, AI and humans are increasingly working hand in hand, with each doing what they do best and the right resource being used for the right task. It’s not necessarily an either-or decision. It’s about finding the optimal combination of humans and AI. This is what Five9 refers to as “Humantic CX” - a combination of Human + Agentic. Humantic CX is Five9’s vision of a unified approach in which AI is a constant partner to human work, rather than a replacement for it. Humantic CX Humantic CX was clearly the star of the show, with demos - unfortunately under NDA - helping clarify what Five9 means by the term. Most CX vendors have been talking about “hybrid AI” or “hybrid workers,” generally referring to AI agents handing interactions, along with relevant context, off to human agents when necessary. Five9’s Humantic CX concept takes this a step further. Five9 describes Humantic CX as providing: Constant presence, where AI is always part of the interaction Elevated agent, enabling humans to focus where they matter most Compounding loop, where every interaction makes the next one smarter Optimal mix, with the right balance of human and AI for every situation The idea is to combine humans, AI agents, and channels in a single conversation, without losing context. Orchestration enables smooth handoffs during the interaction, while backend workflows can help resolve the underlying issue. It also brings together customer memory, domain knowledge, and real-time awareness. Five9’s ambition is to be “the customer outcome partner for the Humantic CX era, harnessing and orchestrating the best of humans and AI.” The company sees an open, unified CX platform as the foundation for achieving that goal - a platform that makes AI real, where voice and digital both play important roles, and where every interaction can contribute to a CX that compounds over time. Five9 intends to pursue this opportunity by focusing on several areas: Where humans will continue to exist and where humans and AI will work together The midmarket and above Key verticals and regulated industries, including financial services and healthcare, where complexity and compliance are essential Specific geographies, including North America and Europe, with a particular focus on markets such as the UK and Germany Differentiation With so many CX vendors now offering AI agents, AI studios, and related capabilities, differentiation is becoming increasingly difficult. Five9 believes its differentiation comes from its network, platform, and Humantic CX approach. Five9 is a global connected voice provider with a global telco network, providing global connectivity, voice analytics, and reliability. But the company is also placing significant emphasis on what it calls the interaction layer - the place where channels, orchestration, memory, intelligence, and customer interactions come together. As Matradhas noted, “If we can connect channels, provide orchestration, and pull memory into interactions, we’ll succeed.” That interaction layer could become an important battleground as AI agents become more capable and increasingly participate in customer interactions. Putting Humantic CX Into Context I spoke with Matt McGinnis about what Humantic CX is all about and how Five9 differentiates in an increasingly crowded market. In this video interview, McGinnis explains how Humantic CX brings humans and AI together to create synergies across the customer journey and customer experience. He also discusses how Five9 is differentiating through its single platform and by bringing together data, intelligence, analytics, and other capabilities. McGinnis also discusses how Five9 sees AI agents being deployed in the enterprise, including the importance of trust, security, and guardrails. He explains how Five9 is approaching these issues for customers in regulated industries and how the company sees trust as important for both contact center workers and consumers. I also spoke with Five9 President Andy Dignan about some of the key messages from the event, including: The speed required to operate in the AI era Five9’s focus on specific segments and geographies Executing on AI And, of course, Humantic CX In this video, Dignan also discusses customers’ readiness for AI and the growing importance of trust and governance, particularly in the regulated industries Five9 is targeting. He also explains Five9’s vertical approach and how it extends across marketing, product, go-to-market, sales motions, services, partner relationships, and more. Closing Thoughts Five9’s focus on Humantic CX definitely resonated with many of the analysts at the summit. The concept reflects where the market appears to be heading: toward a model in which humans and AI work together rather than AI simply replacing humans. Five9 presented a couple of interesting use cases, but the company will need to provide more examples to help businesses understand the practical value of Humantic CX and, more importantly, the measurable outcomes it can deliver. The concept is interesting; the next step is demonstrating what it means in practice. Five9 also recognizes that there are more and more players entering the space and that frontier AI companies could pose a challenge in the future. The company’s focus on the interaction layer, its open platform and ecosystem approach, customer and conversation insights, and its global network capabilities could help it stand out. Companies such as Sierra and Decagon are gaining both market share and mindshare, particularly among the C-suite. Five9’s opportunity is to position itself as a more complete solution rather than just one, albeit important, piece of the customer experience puzzle. Finally, Five9’s new executive team - Niranjan Vijayaragavan (CTO), Rob Hornish (CSO), Sevn Linsmaier (EVP of Transformation & Strategy), and Jay Lee (CMGO) - brings a fresh perspective to the company. While the team is relatively new to the CX market and has a significant learning curve ahead, its members have worked together at previous companies and appear to be moving quickly to reposition Five9 while focusing on growth and innovation. There’s clearly a lot changing at Five9. The next question is whether the company can translate its new Humantic CX vision into differentiated products, measurable customer outcomes, and sustained growth.

I recently had a discussion with Mitel's Paul Ginn, Verticals PLM, and Tom Boyle of the NHS and Mitel User Group (MUG) board member, about unified communications in healthcare. Tom's enthusiasm for communication technology in healthcare in general, and Mitel in particular, is impressive. In this video interview, we discuss: - What does a ‘communications failure’ actually look like on the ground for healthcare organizations — and what’s the human cost? - The top communication pain points in healthcare - How Mitel provides reliability and the right deployment model for healthcare organizations - Where AI actually adds value in a clinical communications context — and where is it not ready yet - What's next when it comes to providing patient care and much more

At the 8x8 Analyst Summit in Silicon Valley, CEO Sam Wilson made it clear that the company is playing offense. With four consecutive quarters of growth and 21 quarters of profitability, 8x8 is building on a stable foundation as it uses its network, platform, and past acquisitions to compete in an AI-driven market. Wilson was direct in describing how he views the market’s AI messaging and why 8x8 believes its approach is more practical. As he put it, "Companies that say they’re AI companies are stupid idiots – it’s like saying you’re an internet company 20 years ago. AI will be in everything.” It's not about being an AI company - it's all about using AI to solve our customers' problems. Our customers care about their business, not if AI does the routing or not." Key Themes From the Event Several themes stood out at the summit: · 8x8 positions its “One Platform” as a fully integrated environment spanning telephony, digital channels, IVA, video, and CX. · Its AI strategy centers on partnering for models rather than building them internally. As Wilson explained, “We own the network and the data - the platform is the product.” · The company placed strong emphasis on frontline workers, or “the 70% the market forgot.” Wilson argued that every worker should be treated as a first-class worker and that businesses need to stop overlooking digital orphans - employees without laptops, email, or other standard tools. · 8x8 is leaning in on usage-based AI pricing, which lowers the barrier to entry and gives organizations room to experiment and prove AI's value without a large upfront commitment. · The partner ecosystem is central to 8x8’s strategy. 8x8 provides “the network and the pipes,” while partners add complementary technologies and services. As Victor Belfor, GVP Business Dev & Strategic Partnerships, noted, “The ecosystem is part of our product. We’re the one back to pat, providing a single contract, low TCO, and no finger pointing. We own this from beginning to end – delivery, support, integration, etc." New Products Expand the Platform Story 8x8 also used the event to introduce several products, including 8x8 Resolve and 8x8 Pulse. 8x8 Resolve is a mobile-first critical communications and incident management solution designed to support businesses with distributed workforces. It helps organizations notify, track, and coordinate warehouse staff, retail associates, field technicians, and healthcare aides—workers who make up an estimated 70% of the global workforce and are often the last to know when something goes wrong. 8x8 Pulse is a conversational intelligence solution that turns conversations into business insights. It uses generative AI to analyze interactions and add context so the information can be used more reliably at the enterprise level. Pulse draws on conversation data to deliver interaction-based insights and recommendations for workforce management, customer engagement, sales, and operational improvement. It can analyze multiple communication channels, including calls, emails, voicemails, support tickets, external notes, CRM data, and more. According to Dhwani Soni, Global VP of Product Management, every conversation an organization has -customer calls, support interactions, emails, meeting transcripts, and CRM notes - creates data that can be mined for insight. 8x8 Pulse brings those sources together so organizations can generate insights from both structured and unstructured data. The company emphasized that while many organizations are generating large volumes of conversational data, much of it remains fragmented across systems. By bringing those sources into a single platform view, 8x8 aims to help businesses surface insights and improve decision-making across departments. Built on the conversations organizations already generate, 8x8 Pulse is designed to surface relevant intelligence for the right person at the right time, from executives to frontline employees. I spoke with Igor Mostovoy, Director, CPaaS Product, and Dhwani Soni, Global VP of Product Management, about Pulse and Resolve, as well as Engage. One Platform Hunter Middleton, Chief Product Officer, presented 8x8’s vision and roadmap, and how 8x8 will differentiate in the market. While much of his presentation was NDA, Middleton summarized many of the themes discussed throughout the event in this video interview. He covered 8x8’s transformation, the “One Platform” approach, and 8x8's thinking around agentic AI and 8x8 AI Studio. As Middleton explained, the “One Platform” approach goes beyond integrating UCaaS and CCaaS applications. It extends below the application layer to the communications fabric, creating a single communications system for the entire company. He also discussed 8x8’s approach to frontline workers and how non-contact-center staff, including employees without desk phones or laptops, can help customers resolve issues. He further explained how AI capabilities such as Agent Assist can help these workers support customers more effectively. Middleton also discussed AI Studio and 8x8’s approach to agentic AI. As he explained, 8x8 has taken a different route from many vendors by using the latest real-time APIs from LLM providers to enable more natural interactions, simplify workflow design, and shorten deployment timelines. This is an approach that was not practical even a year ago ,and gives 8x8 more flexibility to move quickly. 8x8 Technology Partner Synthflow As mentioned, ecosystem partners are a key part of 8x8’s strategy. Conversation AI vendor Synthflow is a new partner, providing an end-to-end Voice AI platform that enables businesses to design, launch, and operate Voice AI agents with configurable workflows, enterprise telephony, and analytics. I spoke with Synthflow’s VP of Channels and Alliances, Matt Alexander, about the company, its partnership with 8x8, and how Synthflow stands out in a crowded market for voice AI agents and conversational AI platforms. Final Thoughts The summit highlighted a company focused on execution, platform integration, and practical uses for AI. Rather than treating AI as a standalone strategy, 8x8 emphasized how it can support business outcomes, improve worker experiences, and simplify customer engagement. I’ve been saying for years that the walls are coming down between UCaaS, CCaaS, CPaaS, and CRM. 8x8 is focused on a single platform built around the capabilities customers need rather than the acronyms. By tightly integrating its technology with ecosystem partners, 8x8 is differentiating not just through individual applications, but through the platform itself. While 8x8 didn’t use the term “agentic” as often as some competitors, it is clearly laying the groundwork for agentic AI through AI Studio and partner-driven capabilities. 8x8 has evolved from its early days as a UCaaS vendor into a communications platform provider delivering AI-ready voice at global scale. The company sees an opportunity to support the broader workforce with integrated communications, CX, and AI capabilities. I agree with 8x8’s view that as AI handles routine tasks, every worker becomes more of a knowledge worker. The company’s focus on knowledge workers who “make up the 70% of the workforce that the market forgot” points to a sizable market opportunity. With 8x8 Engage and a soon-to-be-announced product, 8x8 appears well positioned to pursue that market. While some vendors are investing heavily in in-house AI, 8x8 is leaning on partners and newer capabilities from companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI. That approach may help the company move faster and stay flexible. Time will tell how well it works.

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About BC Strategies Expert analysis, insights, and opinions Who We Are We are a collection of experienced, independent analysts, consultants, and thought leaders focused on unified communications, customer experience, artificial intelligence and other technologies associated with effective business communications and collaboration. We provide multi-perspective insights for vendors, enterprises and industry professionals. We offer advisory, research, custom content creation, and strategic services.

Blair Pleasant is President & Principal Analyst of COMMfusion LLC and a co-founder of BCStrategies. As an independent industry analyst with over 30 years of experience, she provides strategic consulting services and market analysis on business communication applications, technologies, and markets, aimed at helping end-user and vendor clients both strategically and tactically. Her primary focus areas are Contact Center, Customer Experience, Unified Communications and Collaboration, and other business communications technologies. Blair provides clients with a variety of custom consulting services, including market analysis, surveys and research, white papers, product assessment, competitive analysis, strategic development, vendor analysis, marketing and product positioning, partner development, and more. Named one of the top 50 CX Influencers in 2024, she is a frequent speaker and participant in industry conferences, webinars, podcasts, and other events to help educate customers, solution providers, channel partners, investors, and others about the evolving CX and UCC markets. Blair’s blogs and articles can be found on www.bcstrategies.com and nojitter.com . You can find her on LinkedIn and X . Featured Expert BC Strategies Expert analysis, insights, and opinions Featured Expert: Blair Pleasant